A NARRATOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF ANN IWUAGWU’S ARROW OF DESTINY

Chononso Okolo

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to explore the narratological processes that allow readers to have rich narrative experiences; with a focus on Ann Iwuagwu’s Arrow of Destiny. The particular focus will be both on the theory of focalization processes that boosts the readers’ awareness and conscious processes—those that require readers’ effort and involve deliberate reflection. The importance of this distinction may be illustrated by readers’ responses to the narrative text. Arrow of Destiny has an episodic structure. That is, the events in the novel are not straight-forward. The novel is broken into episodes which make the events not to have link with each other. Each episode constitutes the events in the life of the focalizer. The story is not narrated in a chronological order. It begins withthe incident that happens in the middle of the focalizer’s life down to the ones that happen at her early stage of life and then back to the incident that marks the climax of her life. The novel is a fictionalized autobiography or false-biography. Perhaps, it tells the story of the author in a creative way. Thus, there is a narratological concept called metalepses employed by the narrator. That is, there is a transition from one narrative level to another, by means of a discourse, the knowledge of another situation. The use of the first person pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’ suggest that the author isperhaps writing her autobiography but in a fictional manner. The methods of narrative theory are inspired by modern linguistics, which demonstrates through a synchronic analysis of the language system (Saussure’s langue); how language material develops meaningfully from the opposition and combination of basic elements. The novel is a typical representation of theoretical narratives. It is within this context that this paper finds essence because it seeks to identify the narrativity of the text.Key words: Actant, fabula, focalization, focalizer, metalepsis, narrative, negotiation, narratology